Friday, January 22, 2010

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Let it rain let it rain let it rain!

We had quite the weather event today in Arizona. A pretty punchy winter storm rolled through. Its still raining at 2 a.m. as I write this.

A few highlights:

Wind! Gusty winds knocked down some poles, tore up a few roofs, and caused accidents and poor visibility on freeways north of Tucson. There were multiple big rig accidents on I-8 as well as I-10. Part of I-10 was shut down this afternoon near Picacho due to poor visibility related to dust plus a semi truck accident.

Tornados! Tornados are a rare occurence in Arizona. There were tornado watches for Tucson and areas north and west, plus two tornado warnings in the Phoenix area. One touched down in Scottsdale that caused significant damage to the Barrett-Jackson car auction tents off the Loop 101 damaging a couple tents as well as some exotic cars.

Rain! Severe thunderstorm warnings and heavy rain. Rain events are short during monsoon. The only lengthy ones we get are in the winter. So far its been raining about three hours pretty heavily and is expected to rain all night as well as during the day on Friday. Flooding will be an issue.

Snow! Blizzard warnings for Mount Lemmon today. And, there is snow for the Tucson metro forecast for Saturday. That's a once a year event at best. We'll have to see if that happens.

Mother nature must be angry. We don't like it when she's angry!